Mobile devices in consumer electronics such as e.g. devices for playing back audio and/or video files have memories, in which very large amounts of data may be stored. Mobile music players, for example, are able to store several thousands of musical pieces. In such mobile devices there arises the problem of how the user is able to access these large amounts of data in a simple manner. For navigation, the mobile devices often have a display and an operating device. The operating device may include a touch-sensitive surface of the display or may be an operating element that is separate from the display. The data sets stored in the device may be stored at least in part as a list, of which a portion may be displayed on the display. With the aid of the operating device, the user is able to scroll through the list in order to reach the desired list entry. If the list contains very many entries, however, there arises the problem that it takes very long to reach an entry that is arranged in the list very far away from the displayed list entries. For this reason it has been proposed to group the list entries hierarchically. This entails the disadvantage, however, that the user must navigate through a deeply branched hierarchical menu structure in order to arrive at a desired list entry.
Furthermore, the display of information in a vehicle also entails the problem that very large data sets must be visualized in the vehicle. Modern vehicles include for example a plurality of driver assistance systems, the information of which must be displayed in the vehicle. Furthermore, vehicles often include a navigation system. Such a navigation system is able to display digital geographic road maps including a route and possibly various additional information. Finally, modern vehicles often include communication and multimedia applications, including a mobile telephone interface and devices for playing back music and voice. For these applications it must also be possible to display information in the vehicle. The display of information in a vehicle and the operation of the manifold devices of the vehicle entail very specific requirements. In the vehicle, it is, among others, the driver who takes in the information and operates the respective device. The information should thus be represented in the vehicle in such a way that while taking in the information the driver is not distracted from driving. The represented information should therefore be ascertainable intuitively and quickly by the driver such that he has to take his eyes off the driving action only very briefly when taking in the information. Likewise, the operation of the vehicle devices should be as simple and intuitive as possible such that the driver is able to operate the devices even while driving. If the operation is supported or guided by a display, then the display should occur in such a way that the driver has to view the display only very briefly in order to carry out the operation.
The representation of information in a vehicle often occurs in that a portion of the total information is displayed on the display area in the vehicle and that the user is able to change the portion. The total information may be a list having a plurality of list entries for example. A portion of the entries of the entire list is displayed. By an operator action, the user is able to scroll so as to display other list entries. In the operator action, the user may perform for example an operator movement of a certain extent. The user may furthermore actuate an operating element for a certain operating duration. The quantity or the measure of the change of the displayed information, i.e. in this case the number of items, by which the displayed list entries change, depends in this case on the extent of the operator movement or on the operating duration.
If a very long list having many entries is to be accessed in the vehicle, there exists the problem that the operator action for scrolling to very distant list entries requires much time and attention on the part of the user. In the application in a vehicle, however, this is disadvantageous, as explained above.